The title says it all. Part of what i do now is to convince people to care about their privacy. I know I cannot force people to do anything. And I have a charisma level of -1, if this was an rpg. Like its nonnexistent.
I feel lonely in general because it feels like people make me feel like I’m delusional for caring about protecting my privacy. Maybe there is a support group for that🤣🤣🤣
But anything I can specifically say that works best in planting a seed in people’s mind?
The only time an average person will care about privacy is when it’s taken away from them. Generally speaking, people just don’t care so don’t worry about it too much.
Oof truu😭
for the presentation part, watch standup. watch them construct the story, the path they guide you through, how it all comes together. notice how they lay it out, every syllable, every stutter, how it’s all in the service of delivery. planting and harvesting the callbacks. inadvertently, you’ll start picking up on techniques and implementing them and you’ll notice people hanging on your every word.
as to the actual part converting them over, determine who you’re talking to. if people are aware of the issue but are apathetic about implementing change, that presents one set of issues. if they’re completely unaware that there’s a problem, you’re better off changing environments.
I have an easy job, in my roles I implement the privacy aspect for tech-illiterate people from a security standpoint and I have a dictatorial position - they have to listen to me. I also don’t have tech debt when I implement their IT strategy, i.e. there’s never an issue with an OS or app they love or are used to. all of that is way, way harder when faced with someone who can’t imagine life without a $1000 easily breakable/losable/stealable slab of glass with the blue bubble and the tiks and toks and whatnot.
edit: there’s this thing https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/24/what-i-discovered-when-i-asked-amazon-to-tell-me-everything-alexa-had-heard I just saw at HN. this dude having a blissfully ignorant walk down melancholy lane, pondering the details of his decade-long spyware-ridden life, completely oblivious to their most intimate family shit just being out there in the world, for anyone to abuse just so he can be a more effective consumer. reaching those people, although possible, is such a tremendous effort I don’t think it’s worth it.
You could start invading their privacy if convincing them with words doesn’t work.
Why bother shutting the bathroom door? You’re not doing anything wrong.
Post family drama on Facebook, whats the problem with that? Everyone has drama?
Really there is a deeper conversation about power and manipulation through marketing/propaganda. But thats an ever harder topic.
I think a lot of people confuse internet security and internet privacy. META, Google, M$, and their ilk are highly concerned that your account is not hacked, but then use/sell every aspect of your personal life for profit.
are these like RL convos, how do you enter a convo about changing their minds about privacy
Hmm it depends on the day. I do be getting fired up. I usually send them the chart for alteenstives and show them how cool foss is❤️
But i dont have enough charisma. Gotta roll for that🤣🤣🤣
Many folks are against might in some shape or another. If you play on this, you might get folks aboard.
From there you can show how the eye of the might is greatening their force. Light them towards greatening the force of the folks through withering the eye.
Truuu❤️❤️ thank you so much for advice🙌
They need to have a reason to care. Are they or people close to them in danger if they don’t put effort into increasing their privacy? What steps do they need to take to switch to alternatives, and does what they gain from taking those steps outweigh what they lose? Is your advice oriented around the context of their own lives, or are you telling them to do things because a bunch of people on the internet told you to?
These questions themselves are also very contextual, especially with different political orientations. For instance, if someone distrusts the government, then their definition of “danger” may include the government reading their conversations, which in this case it is a lot easier to convince people to switch to FOSS or more secure platforms like Signal (and I’ve convinced nearly everyone I know to use it, both conservative and progressive/leftist, because they distrust the government and large tech corporations). Whereas if someone thinks the government is alright, then they won’t give a shit. So I’d say that considering and discussing their political beliefs and making sure they align with valid reasons to make changes is an important step before telling them how they should do things.
Oh truu, all good questions.
Hmmm maybe not, but i guess for me its part of doing my part to stop big tech from using our info.
Finding a reason for an average person is hard. Im a minority, so thats a problem. and a lot people i know hate the government
I think it this day and age, moving to foss options is easier than ever. And im not a tech genius🤣🤣
Thank so much for raising these points❤️
Hmmm maybe not, but i guess for me its part of doing my part to stop big tech from using our info.
The big question here is how does big tech use our info that makes it important to keep them from having it? Here, political orientation has a large impact on importance, for example:
Ads: Nobody loves ads, but some people tolerate them more than others. Liberals might see them as a necessary evil to provide services at a good cost. Libertarians might say they have the right to use their own hardware as they please and block them out of convenience. Progressives might say that they promote consumerism, and leftists might go further and say that they are one of the ways capitalists keep their control over society. So since data is used for targeted ads, that’s one area that can be argued based on political orientation.
Product improvement: Overall depends on their view of the company’s impact on society. Conservatives and leftists both see big tech as it exists currently as morally corrupt, others may see them as providing a useful service. If they think that big tech has a positive influence on society, then they are probably okay with their non-security critical data being used to improve the product, otherwise they might be more likely to want to avoid that happening.
Finances: Data can be used to personalize prices for large expenses, which is something that threatens everyone. The cost of healthcare, housing, education, and transportation is a major concern across all political orientations (and is why the Democrats lost the election by not doing fucking anything while the Republicans kept telling people that they would fix it by cutting government spending). However, people might also think that there’s nothing they can do about their data being used to make things more expensive or that if they try to resist that then it will cost more for them, so that’s an obstacle that needs to be considered as well.
Law enforcement: If the person is a target of the Trump administration and knows that, then their data being used against them is one clear motivation if they don’t think it’s too late to do anything. Otherwise, it depends on how much the person trusts the government and current law enforcement.
So overall, I would consider where they fit in this political categorization and use the reasons that align best with this. Challenging their political stances is also an option but requires a lot of other things to consider and probably won’t work well since a lot of it is rooted in fundamental values that are difficult to change.
the easiest way to get them to care is if someone is actively invading theirs.
Yepppp😭😭
Sadly, people rather have convenience if that means giving up their privacy. Its not a battle worth fight to change people’s mindset
Truuu!! But good thing its easy to change to foss options nowadays❤️
But yeah, its not worth it of people dont want to change
Now when you say “care about their privacy” do you by any chance mean buy something? I just want to know what you’re asking for help with here.
Just the normal stuff. Like can we use signal? Or foss options that are free🤣🤣 like nothing they have to pay for yet!
I really want a fairphone but i aint telling them to drop 400 dollars on a phone🤣🤣
My charisma level is low🤣 gotta level up
“You don’t care about privacy? Why not give me your bank login, then”
More seriously, You don’t have to convince people of anything. Sooner than later some huge leak will happen or anythign more intimate that will still impact them, say, like the story of this dad sending a pic of some intimate part of their sick kid’s to their doctor and being flagged by Google AI and being arrested for sharing child porn. And then they will realize why it mattered to protect our privacy.
That truu, I’ve recently started my privacy journey, so im slowly switching to alternative to trying to show them to people. Its like a new found interest.
That article crazyy thoooo😭😭😭 thats wilddd.
That truu, I’ve recently started my privacy journey,
That’s a great decision, imho.
I made the same choice a few years ago. Every little step counts. I will never be an expert or feel that safe using digital tech but I quit using many tools and services I realized I can’t trust at all, which is already something. And it all started by one small first step.
so im slowly switching to alternative to trying to show them to people.
Showing them is a good idea, preaching them to do what you’re doing is probably not that great an idea. Think about it, when was the last time you sincerely changed your mind because someone was forcing you to listen to them or was harassing you. What most probably happened is that you told more or less politely to funk themselves ;)
That article
… is terrifying, imho and it is certainly not the kind of society I want to live in.
There is also a much older story about Amazon deleting the novel 1984 from the kindle of customers having legally purchased it (they were refunded but still that doesn’t change what happened). This kind of events is what started my journey toward a more privacy and ownership-respecting usage of digital tools. That’s also what helped me switch back to analog wherever it was doable (Amazon can’t delete a printed book from my bookshelves).
You can lead a horse to water but you can not make it drink.
That do be truu. Can just educate and wait for them to figure out!
I gave up on convincing people about privacy and all that. They don’t care and say the old crap “I have nothing to hide” but seem utterly perplexed when you tell them Facebook scandals (and then still keep using it).
People have chosen easy of use and laziness over privacy.
Thats truu esp with them using data from facebook to kidnapp people. That alone was like a hold up.
But i feel like using provacy respecting options is easy nowadays. But people get stuck in their ways.
Do people need to care?
Do what you need to to secure your privacy, and let people know how much of a travesty it is that their privacy and rights are being stripped away, but at the end of the day they’re their own people and so if they choose not to care that’s their decision, and it’s not up to you to choose how they’re allowed to think or live their lives, even if it appears obviously wrong and short-sighted to you or I
Thats truu. Yeah if people dont want to do it, they wont🤣 unforrunately.
Yeah im gonna work on myself. I really want a fairphone, but thats gonna take time😭😭 but meanwhile i try to use only foss and privacy respecting apps🙌 i gotta try my best
I am privacy conscious and care about privacy even though I don’t care too much about my own personal privacy just for privacy’s sake.
Privacy advocacy runs deeper than just protecting your own data. Convincing someone to care about “their privacy” is more straightforward when they face a real threat. For example, a journalist in Mexico writing about a politician linked to organized crime has every reason to avoid being easily tracked. That person is not going to post their location on Facebook.
But most people aren’t under direct threat. If you read my texts, you’ll find casual conversations with family and dinner plans. I’m not afraid of someone showing up at my door, so I’m fine sharing my address to get a package delivered. Getting ads is a minor annoyance.
Still, I care about privacy. Not necessarily mine, but privacy as a principle. I care about what surveillance capitalism does to society. Even if my personal threat model is easy, I want tools and systems to exist for people with harder ones. Privacy is part of the kind of world I think we should live in, and its erosion usually points to larger structural problems.
So back to the question. It’s easier to convince someone to care about privacy if they feel directly threatened. But if they don’t, you need something else to make them give up convenience in the name of privacy. That something is ideology. You’re asking how to shift someone’s ideological framework. That’s hard, and not something you can do for them. You can recommend good material, share your reasoning, explain what led you to care. But they have to engage with the ideas themselves. Like with exercise, you can’t build someone’s muscles for them. You can’t implant the ideology, but you can create the conditions for it to take root.
